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Schoolboy Q

Quincy Matthew Hanley, the South Central-born rapper better known as Schoolboy Q, almost quit music due to the fame frenzy that accompanied his widely acclaimed 2014 debut Oxymoron, telling Rolling Stone that when he returned to the studio, at first all that came out was what Q called “depressed rap.” Which might explain why his eventual followup with Blank Face LP, which dropped in July, rides that line between swagger and a dark-humored introspection. For the album, which touches on drug-slinging, urban poverty and depression, Q brought in a range of featured artists to round out the unique sound and accentuate the disparate parts of his own complicated psyche – from the outsize hubris of Kanye West to the Southern lean of 2 Chainz to the socially conscious overtones of labelmate Kendrick Lamar. With Joey Bada$$ and Carlton Zeus.